Electronic transaction processing systems may utilize a payment terminal. The payment terminal can include a payment reader with corresponding circuits that are used to process payment transactions and interact with payment devices such as a payment card having a magnetic strip that is swiped in a magnetic reader of the payment reader, a payment device having a Europay/Mastercard/Visa (EMV) chip that is inserted into a corresponding EMV slot of the payment reader, and near field communication (NFC) enabled devices such as a smart phone or EMV card that is tapped at the payment reader and transmits payment information over a secure wireless connection.
Electronic devices such as electronic cards may store information that may be used for communications and processing of transactions. For example, EMV cards may have an EMV chip located on the EMV card. The EMV chip may interface with a device such as the payment terminal or a portion thereof, which may provide a power source for the EMV chip, e.g., by connecting power and ground pins of the EMV chip to a power source and ground of the payment terminal. Once the EMV chip is connected to a power source, it may communicate with the payment reader or terminal via one or more data lines. In this manner, the EMV chip may exchange information as required to complete a transaction such as a payment transaction.
The EMV chip and payment reader or terminal may perform certain initialization steps after power is applied to the EMV chip. Once those initialization steps are complete, transactions may be performed and information such as encrypted payment information may be exchanged. In the case of payment transactions, these steps of initialization and transaction processing may take a number of seconds to complete. During this time, the EMV chip and the payment reader or terminal must remain connected in order to maintain the power and communications connections with the EMV chip. This creates delays in transaction processing time and is inconvenient for customers and merchants.